Monday, March 5, 2012

Maladaptive Monday to you all, my little gingersnaps. Did you have a nice weekend? No really, you can tell me. I care. While you're contemplating stepping out of lurkdom to leave a comment or not, let's move on to the news...

Tokyo has made changes to the Animal Protection Law saying that all pets on display must be put away by 8pm. This change affects the ever popular Cat Cafes, where business men and women can drop by for tea and play with kittehs as a way of helping them reduce stress. Most cat lovers in Tokyo are prohibited from having their own cats due to strict housing regulations that prohibit most pets, which is partly what makes these Cat Cafes so popular. Many customers arrive at 8pm and stay until closing, which will obviously cut into the Cat Cafes profit as well as fail to provide much stress relief for people at the end of the work day.

Perhaps I should open my own Cat Cafe. I already have 7 cats. They're all friendly. And instead of tea, I can serve Dr Pepper. *runs off to get a business license for the Purple Cat Cafe*

TOKYO (Reuters) - Times are looking tough for Tokyo's cat cafes, where feline aficionados can drop in for tea and some time with a cat.

At most such establishments, it's the post-work rush that brings in the most cash, with tired and harried professionals dropping by on their way homes to pet and play with the animals as a way of relieving stress.

But now the purrs of delight may be getting quieter.

A revision to Japan's Animal Protection Law, due to come into force on June 1, will slap a curfew on the public display of cats and dogs, forcing cat cafes to shut up shop at 8 p.m.

"There's this new revision which says we should be open from eight in the morning until eight at night. After 8 p.m. we have to put the cats in the back, away from the customers, and close," said Hiromi Kawase, the owner of one Tokyo cat cafe.

"Everybody knows cats are really happy in the evening, with their big, cute eyes. So I just can't understand why the people at the top are ignoring this. It's really strange."

Cat cafes have long been popular, catering to the many cat lovers who can't keep the animals at home because of strict housing regulations that forbid pets in many apartments.

Visitors to Kawase's cafe pay about 1,000 yen ($12) an hour to play with any of her 24 cats, who dart around the room chasing toys or sleep in baskets set on tables. Drinks are priced from around 300 yen each.

The government says the real targets of the tighter animal protection law are late-night pet shops, which often sell dogs and cats around the clock. The animals are kept in small cages under bright lights that are never switched off.

Kawase's establishment is far from a 24-hour operation. Her doors close at 10 p.m., but she says many of her customers only arrive around eight, after work, and stay through to the close.

"If I can't see the cats, well, I won't come. Of course I come here because they have cats," said Tatsuo Karuishi, 41.

Karuishi visits the cafe at least twice a week, usually checking in at around eight, as does fellow feline fancier Ayumi Sekigushi.

"It's a great place, it calms the stresses of working life," said Sekigushi, 23. "If this law goes, through that enjoyment is going to disappear. It's a real shame."

While Kawase says the lost business hours will take a toll on profits, it's what that might mean for her cats that worries her the most.

"If our business hours go down and we lose two hours of profits, of course it's going to affect us, but it'll also affect the cats," she said.

"You know, in getting them all the things they need, like the correct amount of food and proper nutrition."

Picking your nose and eating it may be beneficial to your immune system. A study done by Stefan Gates stated that 44% of adults admitted to picking their nose and eating the dried mucus. The even grosser part was they said they liked it. Gates comments that "our body has been built to consume snot," because the nasal mucus is normally swallowed after being moved inside by the motion of the cilia

Mucus filters airborne contaminants. Eating it helps our immune system become stronger and learn to fight off all those contaminants. We swallow a lot of our mucus anyways through the nasal passage down the throat.

**Don't forget to hop on over to Mommy Hates Chemicals for the review of Tom's of Maine Gentle Exfoliating Beauty Bar. Jamie and I will be reviewing the product from our bathtubs. You might want to hide your kids and husbands first. #justsaying

This weekend was fun. This is our birthday month (mine and my son) so I will try to do things throughout the month for him. My son's daycare was closed on Friday so we made our first visit to the Children's Museum for Toddler Time finger painting. After finger painting, we went around to the other areas of the museum. The museum is really not a museum but a big place for kids to play and they call it a museum since they have educational signs posted everywhere. We then went to the park. On Saturday, it rained so my husband was home so we all went to the kid's workshop at Home Depot and built an orange race car. When we came home. we put together the electric train my husband had bought for my son a few weeks ago and played with that. So we had a very nice family weekend, which is quite rare since my husband is on the go a lot.